SAO  PAULO  CITY 
BRAZIL 


A plea  for  the  proper 
equipment  of  Southern 
Methodism  at  the  capi- 
tal of  the  State  of  Sao 
Paulo. 


Board  of  Missions,  M.  E.  Church,  South 
810  Broadway  Nashville,  Tenn. 


A FOREWORD. 


To  the  Southern  Methodists,  rich  and  poor, 
and  to  all  generous  spirits  who  would  aid  much 
or  little  in  one  of  the  great  enterprises  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South: 

To  the  gracious  memory  of  that  saintly  band 
of  women,  men,  and  little  children  whose  lives 
have  been  given  in  unwavering  faith  and  with 
undying  hope  for  the  evangelization  of  Brazil: 

To  all  who  labor  or  watch  or  weep  or  pray 
but  do  not  lose  heart  with  the  varying  fortunes 
of  the  day: 

This  little  pamphlet  is  dedicated. 

The  greater  part  of  the  data  written  herein 
was  furnished  by  Rev.  J.  L.  Kennedy  and  his 
coworkers.  My  own  name  is  connected  with  the 
preparation  of  the  material  for  the  press  by  the 
request  of  Rev.  J.  W.  Tarboux,  D.D. 

May  the  living  Christ  prosper  the  message 
and  bless  the  “Land  of  the  Southern  Cross”! 

JoHx  J.  Ransom. 

Nashville,  Tenn.,  August  1,  1914. 


Sao  Paulo  City,  Brazil. 


After  the  Civil  War  of  1861-65  in  the  United 
States  of  America  something  like  a thousand 
people,  led  by  ardent  and  uncompromising 
Southerners,  emigrated  at  intervals  to  Brazil, 
most  of  them  settling  in  the  Province  of  Sao* 
Paulo,  near  the  village  of  Santa  Barbara,  the 
town  of  Limeira  and  the  cities  of  Campinas 
and  Piracicaba.  They  afterwards  scattered 
widely,  from  Para,  on  the  Amazon,  to  the  city 
of  Porto  Alegre,  in  Rio  Grande  do  Sul.  Among 
these  emigrants  were  members  of  the  Pres- 
byterian, Methodist,  and  Baptist  Churches. 
Three  Baptist  preachers.  Revs.  RatclifCe,  Thom- 
as, and  Quillian,  lived  within  fifteen  miles  of 
Santa  Barbara;  one  Methodist  preacher,  Rev. 
James  E.  Newman,  a little  farther  off.  Three 
little  Churches  were  organized  among  the 
Americans  near  Santa  Barbara,  and  all  wor- 
shiped, with  much  real  fraternity  and  not  a 
little  controversy,  in  the  “Campo  Church,”  a big 
shell  of  a country  “union  Church”  that  was 
never  finished  and  which  could  hold  a congre- 
gation of  perhaps  three  hundred. 

In  answer  to  the  call  of  these  North  Amer- 
ican refugees  the  Southern  Presbyterians  (1869), 
the  Southern  Methodists  (1875),  and  the 


^The  word  Sao  is  pronounced  as  the  English  word  sound 
with  the  d left  off. 

[3] 


Southern  Baptists  (1870  and  1882),  one  after 
another,  established  mission  work  among  the 
people  of  Brazil.  The  Northern  Presbyterians 
had  preceded  the  three  Southern  Churches  by 
several  years,  opening  operations  in  1859,  estab- 
lishing themselves  at  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Sao 
Paulo.  They  were  not  backward  in  urging 
upon  the  other  and  later  comers  that  the  law 
of  comity  should  lead  them  to  occupy  other 
places  than  Rio  and  Sao  Paulo.  In  response 
to  these  representations  the  Southern  Presby- 
terians made  Campinas,  about  eighty  miles 
west  of  Sao  Paulo,  the  head  of  their  mission 
and  later  opened  at  Pernambuco,  eleven  hun- 
dred miles  north  from  Rio  de  Janiero.  The 
Baptists  went  seven  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
north  from  Rio  and  opened  their  work  chiefiy  at 
Bahia.  But  the  Methodists  opened  forty  miles 
west  of  Campinas,  at  Piracicaba  (1876),  where 
they  had  already  found  powerful  friends,  espe- 
cially in  the  members  of  the  Barros  family,  and 
also  (1877)  at  Rio  de  Janiero,  the  capital  and 
chief  city  of  the  empire.  About  1880  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Taylor,  later  Bishop  of  India,  opened  ‘fin- 
dependent  missions”  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  at  Pernambuco  and  Para.  The 
Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church  later  opened  work  in  the  Province  of 
Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 

The  story  is  too  long  to  tell  here,  though 
full  of  tragedy  and  vital  interests  of  all  sorts; 
for  these  beginnings  all  prospered,  and  the 
goodly  land  in  which  they  were  cast  entered 
from  year  to  year  upon  a new  era  of  material 
[4] 


prosperity  with  the  usual  vicissitudes  of  a land 
developing  from  a stage  of  exploration  and  ex- 
periment to  the  period  of  great  things  and  rap- 
idly growing  population.  Rio  de  Janeiro  has 
grown  from  some  two  hundred  thousand  inhab- 
itants in  1876  to  a population  of  a million  to- 
day, and  Sao  Paulo  from  fifteen  or  t venty-five 
thousand  souls  at  the  utmost  to  more  than  half 
a million.  The  Northern  and  Southern  Presby- 
terians, constituting  to-day  a united  Brazilian 
Presbyterianism,  and  the  Baptists  have  each 
grown  to  about  twelve  thousand  members. 
The  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal Church  later  transferred  their  work  in  Rio 
Grande,  including  realty,  to  the  Southern  Meth- 
odists; so  that  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church, 
South,  to-day  covers  seven  States  of  the  re- 
public with  a chain  of  churches,  two  An- 
nual Conferences  of  Methodists,  approximately 
eight  thousand.  Several  thousand  Protestants 
belong  to  the  William  Taylor  Mission  of  the 
Northern  Methodists,  to  the  English  and  Ameri- 
can Episcopalians,*  to  the  Independents  and 
fragments  broken  off  from  the  larger  bodies;  for 
of  course  there  have  been  controversies  and 
schisms,  as  indeed  there  were  in  the  days  of 

‘"The  Church  of  England  has  done  work  in  Brazil 
among  the  English-speaking  residents  for  many 
years  through  the  South  American  Missionary  So- 
ciety of  London  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Bishop  of  Falkland  Islands ; while  the  Protestant 
Episcopalians  of  the  United  States  have  erected 
their  mission  into  a missionary  diocese  (about 
1898),  under  direction  of  Bishop  Kinsolving,  for- 
merly of  Philadelphia. 

1 5 J 


the  apostles  cf  our  Lord.  There  should  be 
not  less  than  fifty  thousand  Lutherans  to  cor- 
respond to  the  many  Protestant  Germans  who 
have  settled  under  special  inducements,  partic- 
ularly in  the  more  temperate  regions  of  South- 
ern Brazil,  Santa  Catharina,  Parana,  and  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul,  as  well  as  in  the  inland  moun- 
tain plateau  of  Minas  Geraes  and  Sao  Paulo; 
but  nobody  seems  to  know  much  of  these 
German  Protestants,  who  thus  far  have  been 
almost  altogether  conservative  instead  of  an 
aggressive  missionary  element  in  the  religious 
life  of  Brazil. 

The  Southern  Methodists  of  Brazil,  approx- 
imately eight  thousand  in  number,  are  distrib- 
uted somewhat  as  follows:  In  Rio  de  Janeiro, 
the  city.  State,  and  Federal  District,  in  round 
numbers,  eight  hundred  members;  in  Rio 
Grande  do  Sul,  fifteen  hundred;  in  Minas 
Geraes,  twenty-three  hundred;  and  in  the  State 
of  Sao  Paulo,  twenty-four  hundred,  with  smaller 
fractions  elsewhere  to  make  up  the  total.  Dur- 
ing the  period  of  ten  years  just  ended  the 
Methodists  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul  contributed 
for  all  purposes  $51,000;  Rio  de  Janeiro,  the 
city,  Federal  District,  and  the  State,  $70,000; 
Minas  Geraes,  $86,000;  and  Sao  Paulo,  city  and 
State,  $123,000. 

We  began  work  in  Sao  Paulo  (city)  thirty 
years  ago  and  have  there  three  organized 
Churches,  one  of  them  Italian,  the  three  ag- 
gregating over  five  hundred  members,  or  near- 
ly twenty-one  per  cent  of  the  membership  of 
the  entire  State.  For  church  edifices  w^e  have 
[6] 


two  remodeled  buildings,  of  which  one  houses 
our  Italian  congregation,  and  the  other  was 
bought  and  almost  entirely  paid  for  by  our 
Central  Church,  a Portuguese-speaking  congre- 
gation which  worships  in  it.  There  is,  or  was, 
a small  body  of  Methodists  who  left  us  to  enter 
a factional  “national”  movement,  thus  uncon- 


CENTRAL  CHURCH,  SAG  PAULO. 

sciously  repeating  a chapter  of  Methodist 
Church  history  in  the  America  of  the  days  of 
Bishop  Asbury.  In  the  heart  of  Sao  Paulo 
City  our  Central  Church  has  driven  down  its 
stakes  by  the  purchase  of  a splendid  lot,  for 
which  was  paid  $20,000.  Upon  this  lot  it  is  pro- 
[ 7 ] 


posed  to  build  a great  institutional  church  some 
day  in  a not  far-distant  future. 

In  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo  Protestantism  is 
represented  by  McKenzie  Presbyterian  College, 
of  which  the  late  Dr.  Lane  was  for  many  years 
President,  and  in  which  were  educated  some 
of  the  leading  men  of  the  State.  When  Dr. 
Lane  died,  the  State  Legislature  adjourned  in 
token  of  the  great  esteem  in  which  he  was 
held.  The  “Independents”  operate  a theolog- 
ical seminary;  and  the  Presbyterians,  “Inde- 
pendents,” Baptists,  and  Lutherans  each  op- 
erate day  schools  particularly  for  their  own 
adherents.  Methodism  has  no  educational  plant 
in  this  the  second  city  of  the  republic,  sur- 
passed in  population  in  all  South  America  only 
by  Rio  de  Janeiro  and  Buenos  Ayres.  Wheth- 
er a federation  of  Protestant  Churches  may 
not  produce  in  Sao  Paulo  something  more  per- 
manent and  representative  of  the  common  faith 
of  the  Churches  than  these  fragmentary  but 
most  estimable  schools  remains  to  be  seen. 
However,  our  Central  Church,  miserably 
housed,  bought  and  paid  for  its  own  plant  and 
is  practically  supporting  its  own  pastor. 

The  State  of  Sao  Paulo  embraces  about  one 
hundred  and  twelve  thousand  square  miles, 
with  a population  of  perhaps  thirty-one  per- 
sons to  the  square  mile.  Its  people  are  enter- 
prising and  thrifty,  its  territory  extends  from 
the  narrow  border  of  the  coast  line  up  beyond 
the  Serra  Da  Mantiqueira  into  a northwestern 
interior,  and  is  mainly  a great  upland  trop- 
ical plateau,  with  an  average  elevation  of  from 
[8] 


a thousand  to  eighteen  hundred  feet,  a great 
coffee  region,  producing  rice,  Indian  corn,  and 
a copious  variety  of  foodstuffs.  It  has  several 
thousand  miles  of  railway,  but  its  natural  re- 
sources are  as  yet  mainly  undeveloped.  Its 
fauna,  flora,  and  mineral  wealth  is  great  and 
abundantly  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  millions 
of  inhabitants. 

Public  education  in  Sao  Paulo,  State  and  cap- 
ital, is  far  in  advance  of  the  average  for  Brazil, 
in  part  due  no  doubt  to  the  massing  there 
of  the  efforts  of  the  various  Protestant  Church- 
es; but  that  very  advance  is  a clarion  summons 
to  Methodism  thoroughly  to  equip  our  mission 
for  the  great  work  of  evangelization,  which  has 
yet  only  fairly  been  inaugurated. 

The  public  edifices  of  the  city  of  Sao  Paulo 
are  planned  upon  a truly  New-World  scale  of 
magnificence.  The  sleepy  Roman  Catholicism 
of  former  years  has  arrayed  itself  in  modern 
finery  and  near  our  vacant  Methodist  Church 
lot  has  begun  to  crystallize  its  dream  of  organ- 
ized worship  and  spiritual  domination  in  the 
form  of  a huge  and  tremendously  costly  half- 
modernized  cathedral.  In  sight  of  that  impos- 
ing splendor  of  Roman  Catholicism  it  is  not 
hard  for  passers-by,  beholding  the  unusual  op- 
portunity of  Methodism,  to  read  the  modern 
version  of  our  Lord’s  parable:  “This  Church 
prepared  to  build,  and  has  not  been  able  to 
finish.”  Fifty  thousand  dollars  from  the  home 
Church  and  twenty-five  thousand  from  the 
brave  little  Central  Church,  and  we  would  have 
a modern  Methodist  church  building,  radically 
[9] 


different  in  design  and  purpose  from  the  grand 
cathedral,  massive  enough  and  wonderfully  ef- 
ficient for  our  purpose  of  spreading  Christian 
holiness  over  the  Land  of  the  Southern  Cross. 
Our  work  began  in  the  State  of  Sao  Paulo  as  a 
mission  in  1875-76  under  the  impression  that 
rural  methods  were  all  that  were  needed  in 


ANOTHER  VIEW  OF  CENTRAL  CHURCH.  SAO  PAULO. 


evangelizing  Brazil.  The  city  of  Sao  Paulo  has 
increased  its  area,  its  population  is  more  than 
twenty  fold  as  great  as  thirty  years  ago,  and 
its  social  and  racial  problems  are  a hundred- 
fold more  complex;  but  we  are  still  using  prac- 
tically the  outgrown  methods  of  that  earlier 
[10] 


day.  The  Church  of  to-day  in  the  homeland 
prepares  to  handle  the  modern  Sunday  school, 
the  Epworth  League,  the  missionary  societies, 
the  social  life  of  the  Church — in  short,  properly 
to  house  the  great  congregation.  We  need  in 
part  the  deaconess,  the  social  worker,  the  li- 
brary, the  Bible  reader,  the  Christian  nurse, 
the  kindergartner.  Sao  Paulo  is  a modern 
city;  its  railroads,  trolley  lines,  manufactories, 
telephones,  and  what  not  by  way  of  modern 
devices  for  comfort  and  efficiency  are  of  the 
twentieth  century.  Its  elegance,  comfort,  and 
wealth,  along  with  its  efficient  men  and  wom- 
en in  lower  life,  must  be  won  for  Christ.  It 
is  worth  while  to  put  lives  and  money  and 
faith  and  effort  into  such  a campaign.  We 
must  win  in  such  a vital  endeavor  as  this  or 
recognize  the  ultimate  failure  and  decay  of  our 
lesser  enterprises.  God  has  given  our  Church 
the  men  and  women  here  and  in  Brazil  who 
are  needed  for  such  a task,  and  God  has  given 
the  Church  the  money  needed  for  such  an  outlay. 
Will  Southern  Methodism  respond  to  a need 
like  this?  The  second  President  of  the  Bra- 
zilian republic  was  our  personal  friend;  his 
beautiful  daughter  was  educated  at  Collegio 
Piracicabano.  He  never  wavered  in  his  friend- 
ship, but  he  stood  firm  in  his  rationalism  that 
he  learned  before  he  knew  us.  In  this  great 
city  of  Sao  Paulo,  in  the  splendid  scientific 
school  that  is  preparing  the  future  masters  of 
Brazil  for  the  work  of  practical  life,  we  are 
represented  by  a comparatively  young  man  who 
came  into  our  Church  in  early  life.  We  need 
[11] 


to  equip  our  point  of  vantage  with  a becoming 
edifice,  where  competent  men  shall  preach  a 
manly  gospel  of  such  power  as  shall  win  to 
Christ  the  men  and  women  who  are  to  give 
character  to  the  next  hundred  years  of  Brazilian 
history.  We  need  fifty  thousand  dollars  to 
breathe  life  into  a splendid  enterprise  and 
bring  to  realization  a scheme,  a dream,  a divine 
vision  of  equipment  for  the  multiform  work  of 
Christ.  Such  a monument  of  the  faith  and 
hope,  the  spiritual  aspiration  of  our  day  and 
time,  will  be  for  some  generations  to  come  the 
material  expression  in  stone  and  mortar,  in 
concrete  and  structural  steel,  of  our  experience 
of  the  manifold  grace  of  the  Son  of  God. 


RAILWAY  STATION  AT  SAO  PAULO,  BRAZIL. 


[12  1 


